Boolardy Homestead Group

Statement of Significance

Boolardy, with Yuin and Murgoo, is one of the original stations taken up by the Wittenooms with the assistance of John. Perks in the 1870’s .. The first buildings date from the 1880's and illustrate well the use of local materials being of stone or mud bricks with timber work of mulga and ant bed floors. Hand hewn door frames and wall and verandah plates are classic examples of the art of using an adze. Additional buildings erected over a period of about sixty years show how the station developed and the technological changes which occurred. Boolardy is one of the few remaining properties where the families of the original owners still take an active part in management.

Physical Description

The oldest remaining buildings, which date from the 1880's, are two one-room stone huts. The first, now known as the old store , is about 20' x 20' with a fireplace and no windows. It was built from stone from the nearby creek with mud mortar and all the timber is hand hewn mulga. It now has a corrugated iron lean-to at the back . The other hut, also of stone with a fireplace, is about 6' x 8' inside and is believed to have been built for John Perks - it stands close to the blacksmith shop . The main house, completed late in the 1890's, has walls of mud brick and all the timber work is mulga·, believed to have been cut from near Mt .Murchison. Floors are of ant bed, which is gradually being replaced, and the roof is of iron. The garden around the house was enclosed .by a mud. brick fence with pillars ked by mulga rails. The house was one room wide, with a passage down the middle, and verandahs back and front . It has a detached kitchen of stone and a meat house. In the 1920's the kitchen block was re-roofed and joined to .the house and the outside walls of the house were plastered to cover the fretting mud walls . In the 19So•s all the mud brick walls were underpinned, a damp course put in, the building replastered and the passage wall removed to enlarge the dining room . At this time also the bedroom wing at the west end was added and the old mulga posts on the front verandah replaced with brick pillars and wall. The front fence was also replaced with a stone wall to help keep the water out when the creek rose after heavy rain . Also erected in the 195O's by the same builders were the stone cottage .called Wittenoom house after Mr. F. Wittenoom and a new cement brick store , office and bookkeepers room. The windmill man’s house, of timber and asbestos was built in 1964 with timber pre-cut in Geraldton. Just prior to .this a cool room was in installed and extensive reorganisation of the power house carried out. The jackeroos quarters date from early in the century and the cook’s house was put up about 1940. The various outbuildings were also erected over a log period, from the small stone hut of the 1880’s to the comparatively recent iron hangar for the plane. The older group, which includes the stone hut, consists in addition to the blacksmiths shop, of the carriage house with harness room at one side and chaff room at the other and at the back, stallion 's yard and stable. Two old iron buildings used for quarters are now linked with a modern machinery shed. At some distance are quarters for·the aboriginal staff.

History

Assessment 1985 Construction 1880's onward

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

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